Photo: Emrah Gurel/ AP
A week into the ground war between Israel and Hezbollah, shelters in Lebanon are filling up beyond capacity, humanitarian officials warned.
Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli towns and fought ground battles with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as the United Nations warned that nearly a million Lebanese had fled the spreading war between Israel and Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East.
In a sign of the war’s growing scale, Israeli evacuation orders now cover a quarter of Lebanon’s land area, according to the United Nations, which says the calls have sent people fleeing from more than a hundred villages and urban areas.
“To the people of South Lebanon: Be careful!” an Israeli military spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Wednesday in an Arabic language warning posted online. Israeli forces, he said, were continuing “to attack Hezbollah sites in and near your village, and for your own safety you are prohibited from returning to your homes until further notice.”
More than 600,000 people of Lebanon’s 5.4 million have been displaced within the country, threatening to overwhelm shelters, U.N. officials warned, and 300,000 others have fled abroad. Half of Lebanon’s public schools have been turned into shelters, the aid group Save the Children said on Wednesday.
Displaced people have set up tents on white-sand beaches where vacationers once sunbathed, and people have taken refuge not only in schools but in parks, unfinished buildings and at least one nightclub.
“The humanitarian impact is absolutely dire,” Duncan Sullivan, the program leader of the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, said on Wednesday.
The war began just over a year ago after Hamas militants led an attack into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces moved to destroy Hamas there, but when Hezbollah quickly joined the fight from the north, firing rockets into Israel, Israel found itself engaged in hostilities at another border.
Over the months that followed, the exchanges of fire displaced tens of thousands of people in Lebanon and Israel. Then Israeli ground troops crossed the border.
Israeli military officials have described the invasion as limited, saying it is aimed at clearing the border area of Hezbollah fighters and weapons.
Even as they fight in the north, Israeli forces have continued their battle in Gaza, and have also stepped up military action in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. At least four people were killed there, in Nablus, on Wednesday in a raid by undercover Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israeli police.
But it is the tensions between Israel and Iran — the sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah — that have done the most in recent days to keep the region on edge. A week after Iran unleashed a barrage of missiles at Israel, its allies and adversaries alike are waiting to see what happens next.
On Wednesday, the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, issue a new warning on Iran.
“Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising,” he said. “Whoever attempts to hurt the State of Israel will pay the price.”
American officials, worried about an uncontrolled escalation, were caught off-guard by Israel’s recent onslaught against Hezbollah, and stymied in their efforts to broker a cease-fire both in that conflict and in the war in Gaza.
Relations between the allies have been seriously strained. On Wednesday, for the first time in two months, President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke by phone.
Iran has also sought to shore up relations with its Arab neighbors this week, dispatching its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on a tour that included some of the United States’ closest partners in the region. On Wednesday, he visited one such partner: Saudi Arabia, a longtime Iranian rival.
Before Mr. Araghchi set out from Tehran, he said Iran did not want war with Israel but that it was prepared to strike back if attacked. He also said Iran would continue its support of militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, a network that calls itself the “axis of resistance.”
Hezbollah has been battered by Israel’s assaults over the last three weeks, but the group still has a formidable arsenal.
A Hezbollah missile barrage on Wednesday killed two people in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s emergency services said. And six people were wounded by shrapnel after a rocket hit a bypass road near the northern city of Haifa, the Israeli military said.
The volley followed another night of Israeli airstrikes in the densely populated areas near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, and an Israeli strike near the Iranian Embassy in Syria.
More than 800 of Lebanon’s 990 shelters are already full, according to the government, and the few that do have room are often too remote for residents to reach, said Mr. Sullivan, the U.N. official. Some have only one or two toilets for a hundred people, and lack electricity, adequate lighting or safe areas for women and children.
The European Union also announced it was dispatching three planes loaded with humanitarian aid to Beirut.
聯合國表示，黎巴嫩有近百萬平民逃離戰爭
人道主義官員警告說，以色列和真主黨之間的地面戰爭已經持續一周，黎巴嫩的避難所已經超出了容納能力。
週三，真主黨武裝分子向以色列城鎮發射火箭，並在黎巴嫩南部與以色列軍隊進行地面戰鬥，聯合國警告稱，近百萬黎巴嫩人逃離以色列和伊朗支持的中東組織之間不斷蔓延的戰爭。
據聯合國稱，以色列的疏散令現已覆蓋黎巴嫩四分之一的土地，這表明戰爭規模不斷擴大。
“致黎巴嫩南部人民：小心！” 以色列軍方發言人 Avichay Adraee 週三在網路上發布的阿拉伯語警告中表示。 他說，以色列軍隊正在繼續“攻擊你村莊內和附近的真主黨地點，為了你自己的安全，你被禁止返回家園，直到另行通知。”
聯合國官員警告說，黎巴嫩 540 萬人口中有超過 60 萬人在國內流離失所，庇護所面臨被淹沒的威脅，另有 30 萬人逃往國外。 援助組織救助兒童會週三表示，黎巴嫩一半的公立學校變成避難所。
戰爭在一年前就開始了，當時哈馬斯武裝分子從加薩走廊對以色列發動了攻擊。 以色列軍隊前往摧毀那裡的哈馬斯，但當真主黨迅速從北部加入戰鬥，向以色列發射火箭時，以色列發現自己在另一個邊境陷入了敵對行動。
接下來的幾個月裡，黎巴嫩和以色列的交火導致數萬人流離失所。 隨後以色列地面部隊越過邊境。
以色列軍方官員稱這次入侵是有限的，其目的是清除邊境地區的真主黨戰士和武器。
在北部作戰的同時，以色列軍隊仍在加薩地帶繼續作戰，並在以色列佔領的約旦河西岸加強了軍事行動。 據巴勒斯坦衛生部和以色列警方稱，以色列臥底部隊週三在納布盧斯發動襲擊，造成至少四人死亡。
但最近幾天，以色列和伊朗——哈馬斯和真主黨的支持者——之間的緊張關係最讓該地區陷入緊張。 伊朗向以色列發射一連串飛彈一週後，其盟友和對手都在觀望接下來會發生什麼事。
週三，以色列國防部長約夫·加蘭特對伊朗發出新的警告。
「我們的攻擊將是致命的、精確的，最重要的是令人驚訝，」他說。 “任何試圖傷害以色列國的人都將付出代價。”
美國官員擔心局勢會失控升級，對以色列最近對真主黨的襲擊措手不及，並阻礙了他們在這場衝突和加薩戰爭中斡旋停火的努力。
盟友之間的關係已經嚴重緊張。 週三，拜登總統和以色列總理本傑明·內塔尼亞胡兩個月來首次通電話。
伊朗本週也尋求加強與阿拉伯鄰國的關係，派出外交部長阿巴斯·阿拉格奇(Abbas Araghchi)出訪，其中包括美國在該地區最親密的一些夥伴。 週三，他訪問了這樣一個合作夥伴：伊朗的長期競爭對手沙烏地阿拉伯。
阿拉格奇在從德黑蘭出發前表示，伊朗不想與以色列發生戰爭，但如果受到攻擊，它準備好反擊。 他還表示，伊朗將繼續支持哈馬斯和真主黨等激進組織，該組織自稱為「抵抗軸心」。
過去三週，真主黨遭受了以色列的攻擊，但該組織仍然擁有強大的武器庫。
以色列緊急服務部門稱，真主黨週三的飛彈襲擊造成以色列北部城市什莫納市兩人死亡。 以色列軍方稱，一枚火箭彈擊中北部城市海法附近的一條繞道，造成六人受傷。
在此之前，以色列又對真主黨控制的貝魯特附近人口稠密地區進行了另一晚的空襲，並對伊朗駐敘利亞大使館附近進行了空襲。
聯合國官員沙利文表示，黎巴嫩 990 個避難所中的 800 多個已經住滿，而少數有空間的避難所往往位置太偏遠，居民無法到達。 有些只有一、兩個可供一百人使用的廁所，缺乏電力、充足的照明或婦女和兒童的安全區域。
歐盟也宣布將派遣三架滿載人道援助的飛機前往貝魯特。
Source: NYT
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